Zoner Photo Studio X

I've been using Zoner Photo Studio 17 Pro and have found that it has a lot of tools in common with Adobe Lightroom. I bought it for $20 and it's currently an older version, but it has many of the tools I need to edit photos, including RAW files. There is a learning curve because of all the features, but that makes it a powerful piece of software.

I have been using Zoner Photo Studio for many years, as I found it easier to do what I wanted to do than Photoshop and Lightroom. Yes, it was annoying when the pop-up ads came on for the single license version. I hated that. I finally broke down and start the subscription (X) version. They seem to be very active with updates and photo taking and editing tips for their users.

I'm done with the paying version. I will search for another program because I don't like to receive spam in my paid program. I wrote about my problem but got a standard answer, thanking me for understanding, which I don't.

Somewhat maddening in that the app does work quite well and the results I get are quite similar to Lightroom Classic; but the lack of a user forum and non-responsiveness of the support team to questions makes the purchase of this app seem more like a crap-shoot. Okay; so it's half the price of the Lightroom/Photoshop subscription but without bona fide support options; is it worth the savings? (Then Lightroom gets new awesome auto-masking features and the calculus shifts even more in Adobe's favor.) Would love to switch from Adobe but there are too many practical reasons not to.

Edit 1/5/23: Did receive an answer to my questions from tech support so it may have been they were away for the holidays. The full-powered app you get with the $60 annual subscription still is limited to one install actually running so it's half the price of Adobe's LRC/PS bundle. But somewhere during the assembly of the various ZPS-X software components, the organization of the functions became scattershot, so to speak. Lots of potential but, as I wrote above, the extra $60/yr for Adobe's subscription to LRC/PS is the right value for me.

Zoner Photo Studio is a terrific product even if you don't consider that its price is less than one third of that of its main competitor Photoshop/Lightroom. Zoner's ease of use is exemplified by the fact that even though I used to have access to Photoshop and Lightroom for free through my work, I happily paid for Zoner Photo Studio from my own pocket because it was so much easier to use. It is a comprehensive package, offering both simple and sophisticated photo editing methods whilst also having excellent cataloguing and metadata editing methods to make your photo collection readily searchable. Add to that its video editing capabilities and it is hard to find anything wrong with it.

I use Zoner Photo Studio for all my image/photo editing needs because of the following:

• Excellent customer support (I've consistently had replies within 24h)
• Ongoing product development (there are new and improved features every month)
• Great variety of pre-made photo filters and image effects (just recently used the "pencil drawing" effect and my client was very impressed with the professional result it gives).

You expect a lot from an app that markets itself as an Adobe Photoshop competitor and frankly, Zoner Photo Studio owns up to its promise. I've been using it for over a year and I'm still discovering new features. It's a 5-star experience for me so far! Highly recommended.

I quit using the expensive Photoshop years ago, and I do not regret about it. Zoner is very good alternative, and it is getting better and better every day...